Shopping centres to promote Indigenous digital art

Sea creatures and coral from the Great Barrier Reef and tropical rainforests captured in the artwork of NAIDOC artist of the year Elverina Johnson will be shared with shoppers across Australia.

Ms Johnson’s art will be shown on big digital screens at seven centres from Lakeside Joondalup in Western Australia, to Craigieburn Central north of Melbourne, to Macarthur Square and Erina Fair in New South Wales and Sunshine Plaza, Caneland Central and Cairns Central in Queensland.

The digital exhibition will run until December.

Ms Johnson is a Gungganji woman from Yarrabah, one of Australia’s biggest Aboriginal communities, 53 kilometres from Cairns.

Lendlease, which runs the shopping centres, said it was the company’s first digital exhibition.

“It is great to see our digital network capabilities raising the profile of Ms Johnson’s work and NAIDOC while enhancing the customer experience at our shopping centres,” head of retail Gary Horwitz said.

He said the company was also extending its partnership with Mainie, an Aboriginal-owned fashion retailer, at Cairns Central.

Mainie creative director, Charmaine Saunders, said Ms Johnson was an accomplished artist, community worker and passionate advocate for women’s rights, social welfare and education in Aboriginal communities.

“Elverina is extremely proud of her culture and heritage and this passion shows through in her art,” she said.